Saturday, May 7, 2011

BOSTON—Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade said Saturday he appreciates Kobe Bryant's self-proclaimed "crazy" view that the Los Angeles Lakers can overcome their 0-3 deficit against the Dallas Mavericks and become the first NBA team to rally from such a postseason deficit.

Wade drew his perspective from the Heat trailing the Mavericks 0-2 in the 2006 NBA Finals and being down by 13 points in the fourth quarter of that series' third game before rallying to win the franchise's lone championship in six games.

"Is it 'crazy'? Yeah, it's crazy. But it's a good crazy," Wade said of Bryant's statement. "You've got to have that mentality. For us, we were down 13 in the fourth quarter, looking like, 'just throw the dirt on.' But we didn't give up and you never know what one game, at that point, the last five, six minutes of that game did for the rest of the series for us.

"He feels they can win a series, because the series is never over until that team finally defeats you in that fourth game. We understand."